Colombia's new president just ordered raids and deportations of illegal immigrants, borrowing straight from Trump's playbook—and the same outlets that brand American border enforcement as xenophobia are covering it as a sovereign policy choice, not a moral crisis.
President Abelardo de la Espriella, in office barely three weeks, announced Sunday that joint police and immigration operations would begin "this very week" to track down and deport migrants who are in the country illegally, starting with those committing crimes and then moving to those without legal status. "I will not accept any illegal immigrants, wherever they come from," de la Espriella said in a video posted to his X account. "They will have to leave and be deported. It is a political decision I am taking responsibility for." He declared it would be "Colombians first, Colombians second and Colombians third"—a direct echo of Trump's America First doctrine.
The order targets roughly 848,000 migrants living in Colombia without regular status, the vast majority of them Venezuelans who fled their country's economic collapse. About 2.8 million Venezuelans reside in Colombia overall, according to the United Nations, making it the largest Venezuelan diaspora. Colombia had previously granted temporary residence permits to some 2.3 million Venezuelans under a 2021 scheme, but the government stopped issuing new permits three years ago, according to Ana Karina García of the migrant advocacy group Juntos Se Puede—meaning there has been no legal pathway for newer arrivals.
De la Espriella also used the announcement to declare all gangs involved in drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, and smuggling "terrorists," vowing to defeat them "by reason or by force."
The double standard is impossible to miss. The Guardian framed de la Espriella as "far-right" and led with opposition criticism—leftwing senator María José Pizarro Rodríguez called the order "pure xenophobia and aporophobia" and asked whether he was "proposing a Colombian ICE against fellow Latin Americans." SFGATE, running an AP wire, labeled him "ultra conservative" and gave more space to migrant advocates but acknowledged the policy shift in neutral terms. Neither outlet called the crackdown racist. Neither suggested Colombia was betraying its values. When another country puts its citizens first, it's policy. When America does it, it's supposedly fascism.
The practical obstacles are real. Colombia's migration agency, Migracion Colombia, currently has no director, according to SFGATE, and sources within the agency told El Tiempo it lacks the staff to carry out the operations de la Espriella has promised. Under Colombian law, there is technically no category of "illegal" immigrant—being in the country without documentation is an administrative violation, not a crime. Whether that legal distinction slows the crackdown remains to be seen.
Conservative leaders across the region—Argentina's Milei, Chile's Kast—are tightening migration rules in parallel. The doors are closing, as Arles Pereda of a Venezuelan association in Bogotá put it: "Not just in Colombia, but also in Chile, Peru and Ecuador."
The question isn't whether Colombia has the right to control its borders. Every nation does. The question is why American outlets extend that recognition to every country except their own.
